ICO Guidelines in Lithuania Aims for Transparency

The Lithuanian Government has released comprehensive ICO guidelines with government officials calling it a move towards “certainty and transparency” in Lithuania.

Just two months prior to this, the Lithuanian government facilitated a dialogue between the banks in the country and ICO operators. The release of these guidelines comes after a comment from the Minister of Finance Vilius Šapoka saying ICOs should be regulated:

“Lithuania already has an exceptional regulatory advantage. We are one of the first ones in Europe who prepared comprehensive guidelines on legal framework for ICO projects covering regulatory as well as taxation and accounting.”

Šapoka says that they acknowledge the potential of the crypto industry and that they are encouraging and inviting companies to “innovate and create” in the country.

The country’s new guidelines really are comprehensive—tackling aspects like accounting, anti-money laundering, and accounting. According to these guidelines, a coin’s “granting profits or governance rights” are marked as factors that determine whether or not it is a security.

“These guidelines are another step towards more certainty and transparency in the regulatory, taxation, accounting and other requirements as well as better cooperation between different stakeholders,” says Šapoka.